You might have thought the hard part for marriage equality advocates was winning a voluntary participation opinion poll conducted on the human rights of LGBTI Australians, but unfortunately the harder part looms.

The hard yards will involve turning Wednesday’s national aspiration into legislation. The will of the majority now needs to be delivered, and the greatest obstacle to that delivery is a riven government.

The Coalition actually has significant political opportunity with this result. The government has an opportunity to prove it is something other than a rabble obsessed with intrigues and toxic paybacks.

It has the opportunity to demonstrate to voters that it can function productively, and has not, collectively, lost the plot.

Demonstrating that would involve government MPs getting on with turning the will of the people into the law of the land, without delay, without posturing, without new threats and arm twisting and standover tactics, without unctuous gestures of obedience to conservative power brokers and preselectors.

Given the parlous political circumstances the Turnbull government currently faces, this is a significant test that people might like to consider meeting. A bit of sober reflection is seriously in order. But whether people can rise to the occasion, can rise above their inclination to plot, remains moot.

The crash-through strategy now among Liberal supporters of same-sex marriage is to grab the momentum from the result and play a simple numbers game.